UK competition watchdog launches investigation into fake review epidemic across Google and Amazon
(2021/06/25)
- Reference: 1624631407
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/06/25/uk_cma_google_amazon_fake_reviews/
- Source link:
Google and Amazon are waiting to hear about their own five-star rating today after the UK's competition regulator announced it had opened a formal investigation into fake reviews on their platforms.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) wants to know whether the online beasts have broken consumer law by taking "insufficient action to protect shoppers from fake reviews."
The move comes after an initial CMA investigation last May to figure out whether Google and Amazon have the right checks in place to handle this type of consumer fraud.
[1]
Now the competition watchdog [2]has said it has "specific concerns" over whether "Amazon and Google have been doing enough" to spot and zap dodgy reviews, and hound persistent offenders.
[3]
[4]
A spokesperson for the CMA declined to give the body's own review of Google and Amazon's performance when asked how many stars they would give them.
Instead, the watchdog pointed us to the official line from CMA chief exec Andrea Coscelli, who said: "Our worry is that millions of online shoppers could be misled by reading fake reviews and then spending their money based on those recommendations. Equally, it's simply not fair if some businesses can fake 5-star reviews to give their products or services the most prominence, while law-abiding businesses lose out.
[5]These six proposed bipartisan antitrust laws put Big Tech in the cross-hairs – and a House committee just OK'd them
[6]Google set to face fresh sueball over its Play Store revenue commission after probe by several US states – report
[7]'Google is present at almost all levels of the supply chain' for online ads: It's time for a competition probe, says EU
[8]Amazon notices Apple, Google cutting app store commission rates, follows suit
"We are investigating concerns that Amazon and Google have not been doing enough to prevent or remove fake reviews to protect customers and honest businesses. It's important that these tech platforms take responsibility, and we stand ready to take action if we find that they are not doing enough."
A spokesman for Amazon said the online giant will "continue to assist the CMA with its enquiries, and we note its confirmation that no findings have been made against our business."
[9]
A spokesman for Google chipped in: "Our strict policies clearly state reviews must be based on real experiences, and when we find policy violations, we take action – from removing abusive content to disabling user accounts."
Last week, El Reg [10]reported how Amazon blamed unidentified social media firms for failing to act against peddlers of fake product reviews.
A recent [11]report [PDF] by anti-fraud biz Cheq said the rise and complexity of fake online reviews is costing the global economy $152bn each year. ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
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[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/cma-to-investigate-amazon-and-google-over-fake-reviews
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YNX9mlgs@lzNH7Nb9UM5ugAAAI0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
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[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/24/us_antitrust_big_tech/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/23/google_play_store_civil_suit/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/22/google_online_ads_competition/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/18/amazon_appstore_commission/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YNX9mlgs@lzNH7Nb9UM5ugAAAI0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/17/amazon_fake_reviews/
[11] https://f.hubspotusercontent00.net/hubfs/5228455/Research/Fake%20Online%20Reviews%202021.pdf
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) wants to know whether the online beasts have broken consumer law by taking "insufficient action to protect shoppers from fake reviews."
The move comes after an initial CMA investigation last May to figure out whether Google and Amazon have the right checks in place to handle this type of consumer fraud.
[1]
Now the competition watchdog [2]has said it has "specific concerns" over whether "Amazon and Google have been doing enough" to spot and zap dodgy reviews, and hound persistent offenders.
[3]
[4]
A spokesperson for the CMA declined to give the body's own review of Google and Amazon's performance when asked how many stars they would give them.
Instead, the watchdog pointed us to the official line from CMA chief exec Andrea Coscelli, who said: "Our worry is that millions of online shoppers could be misled by reading fake reviews and then spending their money based on those recommendations. Equally, it's simply not fair if some businesses can fake 5-star reviews to give their products or services the most prominence, while law-abiding businesses lose out.
[5]These six proposed bipartisan antitrust laws put Big Tech in the cross-hairs – and a House committee just OK'd them
[6]Google set to face fresh sueball over its Play Store revenue commission after probe by several US states – report
[7]'Google is present at almost all levels of the supply chain' for online ads: It's time for a competition probe, says EU
[8]Amazon notices Apple, Google cutting app store commission rates, follows suit
"We are investigating concerns that Amazon and Google have not been doing enough to prevent or remove fake reviews to protect customers and honest businesses. It's important that these tech platforms take responsibility, and we stand ready to take action if we find that they are not doing enough."
A spokesman for Amazon said the online giant will "continue to assist the CMA with its enquiries, and we note its confirmation that no findings have been made against our business."
[9]
A spokesman for Google chipped in: "Our strict policies clearly state reviews must be based on real experiences, and when we find policy violations, we take action – from removing abusive content to disabling user accounts."
Last week, El Reg [10]reported how Amazon blamed unidentified social media firms for failing to act against peddlers of fake product reviews.
A recent [11]report [PDF] by anti-fraud biz Cheq said the rise and complexity of fake online reviews is costing the global economy $152bn each year. ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YNX9mlgs@lzNH7Nb9UM5ugAAAI0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/cma-to-investigate-amazon-and-google-over-fake-reviews
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YNX9mlgs@lzNH7Nb9UM5ugAAAI0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YNX9mlgs@lzNH7Nb9UM5ugAAAI0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/24/us_antitrust_big_tech/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/23/google_play_store_civil_suit/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/22/google_online_ads_competition/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/18/amazon_appstore_commission/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YNX9mlgs@lzNH7Nb9UM5ugAAAI0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/17/amazon_fake_reviews/
[11] https://f.hubspotusercontent00.net/hubfs/5228455/Research/Fake%20Online%20Reviews%202021.pdf
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Product Switching
Anonymous Coward
Thousands of +ve reviews for a plant pot sold on Amazon and then the seller switches it for some overpriced electrical tat.
Again no way to really report it.
Phil O'Sophical
Does anyone actually pay much attention to 5* or 1* reviews? I always assume that 5* are fake, and 1* are vindictive, so I usually read the 2* & 4* and make my own call on whether they are believable.
Anonymous Coward
I ignored the 1* reviews on a pair of Columbia boot recently. Wish I hadn't. Boot upper ripped through after a month of light use. Out of the return period, but Amazon granted a no quibble full refund. Looking at the dozen 1* out of ~1000 reviews: exact same failure.
iron
Did someone in UK gov buy a '3 wolf and moon' shirt but it didn't have the requisite panty dropping effect?
Hopefully the CMA will see through the nonsensical veneer, especially from Amazon, about "taking action when we are alerted" as it is effectively impossible to report both fake (or seemingly fake) reviews or sellers contacting reviewers who give honest but negative reviews and offering incentives to remove or edit them. Last time I tried I found a specific email address (for Amazon UK) that in itself was well hidden and then returned "this mailbox is not monitored".